The invention described and claimed herein relates generally to user interfaces for computer systems and more particularly, graphical user interfaces. A graphical user interface or “GUI” facilitates communications between a computer operating system and a computer user. The computer system includes software and hardware, including hardware for a GUI which typically includes both a visual display (commonly a computer monitor) and selector device (commonly a mouse, trackball or keyboard). Through the visual display, the computer system can deliver graphical and textual output to the user.
A conventional GUI is made up of elements presented on the visual display which allow a user to activate an application in a computer operating system. Examples of such elements are the buttons, menus, menu items, scroll bars and the text input fields. Elements give the application the opportunity to display information, such as zones of text or graphical displays. The layout of all the elements of a conventional GUI is generally already setup by the designer of the application, such as in the well-known WINDOWS® operating system made by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.
Therefore, limited opportunities are presently available to reconfigure conventional computer applications. These typically include adjusting the position of certain controls like the toolbars. Such interfaces can be regarded as static because they do not allow the possibility of configuration by end-users. Moreover, all these elements are often of a rectangular or square shape, which is neither visually stimulating nor very pleasing to the eye.